


Silver Lining

by SzonKlin



Series: Halcyon [11]
Category: The Halcyon (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-06 04:04:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17932517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SzonKlin/pseuds/SzonKlin
Summary: In his darkest hours Toby learns that every cloud has a silver lining.





	Silver Lining

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is for Lou, who asked: "Maybe something like Adil finds Toby crying in a bus stop after work?"
> 
> When I read this request, I couldn't quite see it. I kept asking myself, what would make Adil talk to a crying stranger? This is the answer I came up with.

There are days, when everything falls into place. You wake up refreshed, you reach the station moments before the bus pulls in, your patients are only children brought in by overzealous parents worried over a little cough, and you leave work early enough to catch a few hours of sunlight before going out with friends for a drink at a local bar.

That Friday was not one of those days for Adil. It felt like ages since the last time he saw his bed and any chance of seeing the Sun disappeared when he was called in to assist in a surgery half an hour before the end of his 16-hour shift. The surgery lasted over four hours and though it was considered a success, the little girl was still in critical condition. On top of it all, the rain that seemed to be just waiting for him, started pouring down the moment he stepped out of the children’s A&E. The only thing Adil could be thankful for that that day was the last he had to spend at the A&E. He was training to become a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, a specialization he chose because he wanted to help kids and he wasn’t well-equipped to handle the tragedies that so often happened at the A&E, or the heartbreak that followed oncology where he spent the two weeks before that. Adil understood the need to do these two-week residencies at different departments, but these last two places left him drained both emotionally and physically.

A warm bath, leftover curry from one’s mother and a bottle of wine drank alone in front of some mind-numbingly simple sitcom probably wasn’t what most twentysomething-year-olds wanted to do on a Friday night, but it seemed like heaven for Adil as he battled the wind and the rain on his ten-minute walk to his bus stop.

Adil was so caught up in his daydreams that he didn’t even notice that someone was already sitting on the bench at the stop when a thunder illuminated the scene. Adil halted when he saw the man startle at the sound. There was something in the way the man clutched his arms in a coat that was far too thin for the weather, the way his whole body was shaking, the way he stared unseeing at the ground, that made Adil hesitate a few yards from the stop. For a second, Adil contemplated staying there until his bus arrived but then guilt flooded him. He was a doctor and neither the code of ethics, nor his personality would allow him to just stand by while someone might need his help. Sparing one last thought to his bath waiting at home he squared his shoulders and walked up to the man.

“Are you alright, Sir?” he asked in his doctor’s voice. When he got no reaction, he moved even closer, mindful not to startle the man. “Sir,” Adil asked a bit louder, “are you okay?”

The man looked up at him. His eyes were filled with tears and it took him a while to focus on Adil, but he still didn’t reply. He looked familiar, but Adil couldn’t place him.

“Sir, can you understand me? Can you tell me if you are okay?”

“M’okay,” the men finally mumbled in reply, so lowly that Adil could barely hear it over the sounds of the rain. The answer didn’t sound convincing in the least.

“Is there anything I can help you with, Sir? I’m a doctor,” Adil added, feeling that the man needed a little guarantee that Adil would be able to help and thus deciding not to mention that he was still in training.

“Toby” was all the answer.

“Toby? Is that your name?” Adil felt a little relief over this first sign of cooperation.

“I’m not ‘Sir’. I’m Toby,” the man clarified.

“Okay, Toby, my name is Adil. I’m a doctor. Can I help you with anything? Are you waiting for the bus?” Adil repeated, using the same slow, enunciated tone he used when speaking to the scared little kids at A&E.

“I don’t need the bus,” Toby sad, frowning in confusion.

“Then are you waiting for someone?”

“No one is coming,” Toby whispered as if in realization, the words clearly meaning more to him.

“Toby, you can’t stay here. The night is going to get a lot colder and you could get really sick. Do you know how to get home?”

“I can’t go home,” Toby replied. “I have nowhere to go,” he added after a beat. He took two more shuddering breaths before he started crying again. Whatever had been holding him back seemed to have washed away with the tears and Toby started to ramble. “Father just kicked me out… He was so angry…” Toby murmured something about a paper Adil didn’t quite catch. “I could barely grab my coat… Have no money, no keys… I can’t go to the office… Joe’s out of towm, he can’t let me in… Mom will probably let me sneak back in to take some of my stuff… but father is home for the whole weekend so I can’t go back before Monday. I don’t know where to go. I can’t go to Freddie, he can’t afford to piss dad off. They need help for Ellie… I don’t know what to do till Monday…”

The name ‘Ellie’ grabbed Adil’s attention. Suddenly he remembered a tiny little girl, pale and weak, almost lost in a hospital bed, with machines beeping and wires twisting around her. He also remembered a cute man sitting by her bed, making funny faced and doing voices to cheer her up after her surgery, while her parents were outside, talking to her doctor.

“Ellie Hamilton?” Adil asked, interrupting Toby’s rambling. Toby’s head snapped up and his eyes refocused again.

“Yes,” he said warily. “Do you know her?”

“I work at the Children’s Hospital not far from here. She had a surgery there a few weeks ago, I think?”

That response seemed to have calmed Toby. “She is my niece. She has severe scoliosis. It’s affecting her lungs, so she needed to have a surgery,” he explained. “She’s only three,” Toby added in a whisper. The emotion in his voice was familiar to Adil.  The feeling of not quite believing that the world could be so unfair as to put such a burden on a little kid. Adil’s heart broke for the man in front of him. Toby was clearly in a difficult position, but he almost forgot about it in his sorrow over his little niece. The memory of an imperious grandfather jumped into Adil’s mind, who had half the hospital in a frenzy over little Ellie’s treatment. If that was Toby’s father, Adil shuddered to imagine what might have happened to have Toby on the street like this.

“You can crash on my couch tonight,” Adil blurted before he even had time to think.

“I… I shouldn’t,” Toby protested weakly, but he couldn’t hide the hope in his eyes.

Adil agreed. He knew he should help Toby to a shelter and not invite a stranger into his home. He also suspected that there might be some ethical concerns regarding him fraternizing with a relative of a patient at his work, even if Ellie was in no way _his_ patient. “It’s okay,” he said. He mentally kicked himself. But he felt a pull towards the stranger, and he couldn’t find it in himself to leave Toby without personally seeing that he was okay. “I have a ton of leftover that I can’t finish on my own anyway. And you will be able to think better after a good night’s sleep and with a full stomach. It’s no problem.”

As if on cue, the bus pulled into the stop and Adil gestured to Toby to get on, paying for his ticket after the taller man reluctantly admitted that he didn’t have money for the fare. Toby was quiet during the ride, and now that Adil was convinced Toby wasn’t in any immediate danger, he decided to let him be for the time.

 

***

 

An hour later, as he stepped into the small but neat flat, Toby was still half convinced that Adil was some sort of a guardian angel. He calmed down somewhat during the bus ride and as he started to pay more attention, he noticed how tired his saviour was. Still, Toby was allowed to shower first and by the time he came out of the bathroom, dressed in some clothes provided by Adil, there was a large mug of tea waiting for him and there was an amazing smell floating in the air.

“It’s herbal tea, to help you sleep. There’s honey and lemon on the table if you want. Dinner’s almost ready, but the rice still needs time to cook. I’ll take a shower in the meantime, but if you are hungry, there’s some biscuits in the cupboard, help yourself to some. If you need anything, let me know, but I’ll be back in ten,” with that, Adil left Toby to his own devices.

Toby marvelled over how Adil not only let a complete stranger into his home, but obviously went out of his way to make Toby comfortable. His stomach rumbled at the first sips of tea. Logically Toby knew that he only went half a day without food, which wasn’t that bad, but just a little while ago he couldn’t be sure if he was going to get to eat before Monday, and that fear made his hunger much worse. With the smell of their dinner in the air, Toby had a hard time not to look for the mentioned biscuits, but he was reluctant to sniff though his host’s kitchen even with permission. He knew that he had to be on his best behaviour if he wanted to spend the night under a roof.

Any thoughts Toby had about Adil being an angel disappeared when Adil returned a few minutes later, wearing a pair of joggers and an oversized t-shirt, his hair still wet. Toby never paid much attention in Sunday school, but he was fairly certain that guardian angels weren’t supposed to be so bloody fit.

“You okay there, Toby?” Adil asked, making Toby realize that he was staring. He shook his head and muttered a ‘fine’ in reply, averting his eyes. Noticing the mostly empty table, he quickly changed the topic.

“I would have set the table, but I didn’t want to rummage through your kitchen.”

 “Don’t worry about it,” Adil protested with a smile, but he let Toby set the table while he finished preparing the food.

Toby dived in as soon as they set down. After he finished his first portion and helped himself to a second at Adil’s insistence, they started to talk. Toby knew that sooner or later he would have to explain his situation, but first he wanted a little time to enjoy the warm room, delicious food, good wine, and excellent company. After dinner they sat for a while longer, finishing the wine before Adil put the dishes in the sink and sat back down, asking the question Toby dreaded.

“You don’t have to, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to hear what has happened.”

Toby drank the last of the wine from his glass, gripping it as if it could bring him the necessary strength.

“I was in home office today, I’m a translator, and pathetic as it is I still live with my parents, so I was having lunch with them today when my dad got the call. He is running for mayor for the Conservatives and he had a decent chance, but as it turns out my ex just sold a bunch of pictures of us to some paper and they are running it tomorrow and someone was kind enough to tip father off. He was so pissed off,” Toby gulped at the memory and took a deep breath before continuing. “I knew how he felt, and I always tried to be discrete but never really expected that people I knew would do something like this…”

“I’m sorry. That’s a shitty thing to do. No matter how bad a breakup was, to sell it to a paper, especially if she knew that it would be something that could get you into trouble? Mind if I ask what was in those pictures? Just to see if I made a mistake in letting you in,” Adil laughed to show he was only joking, but Toby suspected that there was at least a little real fear in his question.

“He,” Toby said, nervously fidgeting with his fingers. He hoped that Adil would react just a little better than his father and not throw him out. But there was no way around it, so he elaborated. “I’m gay.”

“Oh,” a soft gasp was Adil’s only reply, terrifying Toby.

“I hope it’s not a problem. I promise I won’t jump you or anything, if you still let me stay,” Toby hurried to assure Adil.

Adil reached out and put his hand on Toby’s arm. The touch sent sparkles through Toby’s body. “Of course you can still stay,” Adil smiled. “I’d never kick you out over that. That’s a horrible thing to do. And anyway, I’m gay too, and I have no objections to you jumping me.” Adil appeared as surprised by saying that as Toby felt and he snapped his mouth shut, before turning red in the face and pulling his hand back. “I’m joking. You don’t have to… I mean that’s not why… I don’t want you to jump me. Obviously. I mean it’s not like I expect anything from you. I… You are really cute and all. But it’s not exactly like you can just leave. And I don’t want to make things weird for you. I just wanted to help. I’ll just leave now. I put some sheets on the couch, make yourself at home. I promise I won’t bother you…”

During his rambling, Adil had jumped up and he almost left the room before Toby managed to interrupt. “Adil,” Toby said firmly for the third time, finally gaining the shorter man’s attention. Having stopped him, Toby stood up and walked over to Adil. With one hand he grabbed Adil’s arm and with the other he reached under Adil’s chin to turn his face towards him.

“I think you are cute too. And not just because you might just have literally saved my life. You are really fit, and funny, and smart and obviously insanely kind and generous, and I have this weird feeling that it might be fate that we have met. And I think it’s best not to fight fate,” and with that, Toby leant down and laid a kiss on Adil’s lips.

Adil moaned into the kiss, which Toby took advantage of to slip his tongue into Adil’s mouth. Adil wove his fingers into the messy curls while Toby used his hand that wasn’t gently holding Adil’s chin in place to pull their bodies closer together. After a few minutes of snogging, Adil pulled back, placing a firm hand on Toby’s chest to keep their distance.

“You are welcome to stay the weekend,” he said in a hoarse voice. “And on Monday, when you have options, I’m going to ask you out. Until then, this is it. Good night, Toby.” Adil reached up to place a quick peck on Toby’s lip for the last time before slipping away.

Toby groaned as he watched Adil disappear into his room and had to adjust his pants before moving to the couch to make his bed.

Monday couldn’t come soon enough.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it, Lou! I still plan on writing the other request as well, but that will probably be a longer fic :)
> 
> Find me on [tumblr](szonklin.tumblr.com)


End file.
